Westenergy’s strategic aim is to promote the development of circular economy.
Westenergy and VEBIC (Vaasa Energy Business Innovation Centre) have launched a group of research projects that aim at discovering new business opportunities for waste-to-energy plants and solutions to development challenges in the waste-to-energy sector. The projects deal with developing Westenergy’s core business and recognising entirely new opportunities within circular economy. An important dimension in the research projects is also to establish new networks and discover potential new partners with whom to take these innovative ideas to the next level.
A right kind of operational environment, a solid business model and significant technological investments are what are needed to turn carbon-neutral energy production into a reality. As a large part of the carbon in household waste originates from biological sources, carbon capture can help us build an industrial carbon sink. These negative emissions and products produced with carbon dioxide can turn into a profitable source of income in the future. Prerequisites need to be, however, created first, and this is what we are doing in co-operation with the University of Vaasa’s innovation platform VEBIC.
The project continues throughout the decade and starts with identifying the best applicable technologies for capturing and utilising CO2. In the project, different options will be mapped out, simulations will be used and networks with pioneers in the sector will be established. Many industrial facilities in Europe and worldwide already capture carbon dioxide. We want to establish pilots and profitable industrial-scale solutions also here in Finland.
Westenergy lives in the intersection of material flows and has already successfully carried out the circular economy approach, for instance, in the utilisation of the plant’s ashes. Developing the ecosystems of circular economy further is, therefore, a natural strategic choice for us.
Westenergy’s resources can be used to create a network of companies where ideas, products and materials circulate. In the project managed by VEBIC and financed by Business Finland, a road map for identifying the needs of a growing circular economy ecosystem is created. Moreover, the best possibilities for new export innovations are recognised in the road map. The project works as a frame for future circular economy companies that can build growth and create jobs within material efficiency. In this way we can make sure that our value chains meet the needs of the 2020 society, and we can keep our value promise to the owners also in the future.
We want to promote the production and use of biogas and help build supply networks in our operation area. Our goal is to create the prerequisites for biogas-driven logistics that uses domestic emission-free energy instead of fossil fuels. Interestingly, when the role of biogas is strengthened, it can be possible to use it also as auxiliary fuel in our plant.
The project, financed by Regional Council of Ostrobothnia, is carried out in co-operation with, for instance, Stormossen, Wasaline and Wärtsilä. The project’s aim is to solve those technical-economic problems that hinder the large-scale adoption of biogas as transport fuel. The project is launched in spring 2020.